Can you eat yogurt after sell by date

There are some who can plow through a container of yogurt like a Saturday-night pint of ice cream. And then there's the rest of us, who on our once-a-month health kick, grab a tub of nonfat Greek , hoping its mere presence in the fridge will encourage us to eat just a smidge healthier. But when all's said and done, oftentimes we end up rediscovering that half-eaten carton hiding behind take-out containers and bottles of mustard on the bottom shelf only after it's expired.

But just because your yogurt is past its prime doesn't necessarily mean it's destined for the trash. According to Eat By Date , a site that outlines the actual shelf life of our favorite foods, as long as it's within one to two weeks of the expiration date, yogurt is still safe to consume.

Think about it: Yogurt is essentially spoiled milk in the first place; an extra week or two is not going to hurt. This doesn't mean you should eschew common sense and dig a spoon into a carton that's a bit more. While we enjoy yogurt for its subtle tang, once the flavor ventures into Sour Patch Kid territory, it's time to take it to the trash.

If you see specks of mold or notice any off-yellow discoloration, or if it just plain smells bad trust us: Yogurt should never smell like sweaty socks , it's time to grab yourself a new carton—one you'll actually finish this time. To-Dos allows Tasting Table members to store and remember all of the food and drink recommendations we send out each week. As someone who values a good night's sleep, I prefer to sleep in as long as possible before running to my 9 a.

In order to not skimp out on the most important meal of the day , I keep my fridge full of Fage strawberry split cup Greek yogurts. Since I try to stay organized, I buy enough individual yogurt cups at a time to get me through a couple weeks of classes before making another Whole Foods run. Sometimes I miss the mark and forget to check the expiration dates, leaving me with more cups of expired Greek yogurt than I know what to do with, and end up throwing away what studies suggest to be perfectly edible yogurt.

Every yogurt has a sell by date on the container. While it's easy to assume it's best to throw away the product after this date, this is simply the last day a manufacturer will support their product's quality, not its safety. According to the US Department of Agriculture, you should really throw out yogurt if it's been sitting out at room temperature for longer than two hours. But what about yogurt that you've carefully kept in your fridge that happens to be past its sell-by date?

Can you eat expired yogurt, or, at least, yogurt that's outlasted its listed expiration date? The short answer is basically yes. You can eat yogurt past its "expiration" date or, at least, the sell-by date that's listed on the yogurt's packaging. But they could be good in your pantry for another 12 or 18 months, and by throwing those out, what you're doing is contributing to food waste in the United States. The listed sell-by date is usually guidance for stores more so than for consumers.

While conventional yogurt isn't going to last in your fridge for a year, yogurt is generally safe to eat for up to two weeks after you bought it, according to the USDA's FreshKeeper app. That holds true even if the date range extends past the listed sell-by date.